Accessibility links

Skip to content
Accessibility Help

Home
News
Sport
Weather
iPlayer
Sounds
Bitesize
CBeebies
CBBC
Food

Home
News
Sport
Business
Innovation
Culture
Travel
Earth
Video
Live

Home
News
Sport
Weather
iPlayer
Sounds
Bitesize
CBeebies
CBBC
Food

Home
News
Sport
Business
Innovation
Culture
Travel
Earth
Video
Live

.sc-c-sounds-nav { position: relative; } .sc-c-sounds-nav__menu-button { display: none; } .sc-c-sounds-nav__items { max-height: 500px; visibility: visible; position: static; } .sc-c-sounds-nav__overlay { display: none; } @media screen and (max-width: 659px) { .sc-c-sounds-nav__wrapper { padding-bottom: 0px; } .sc-c-sounds-nav__wordmark-link { padding-bottom: 18px; } }

Sounds home page

Home
Music
Podcasts
My Sounds

In Our Time - The Social Contract - BBC Sounds

In Our Time - The Social Contract - BBC Sounds

The Social ContractThe Social Contract

Released On: 07 Feb 2008

Available for over a year

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Social Contract; a key idea in political philosophy.

Programme Website

Coming Up Next

now playing
In Our Time
The Social Contract
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Social Contract; a key idea in political philosophy.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Statue of Liberty
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Statue of Liberty. .
45 mins
In Our Time
The Multiverse
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the Multiverse.
45 mins
In Our Time
Lear
Melvyn Bragg and guests examine Shakespeare’s bloodthirsty tragedy, King Lear.
45 mins
In Our Time
Ada Lovelace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ada Lovelace - the Victorian ‘enchantress of numbers’.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Greek Myths
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek myths from Achilles to Zeus.
45 mins
In Our Time
Kierkegaard
Melvyn Bragg examines the rich and radical ideas of the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Dissolution of the Monasteries
Melvyn Bragg examines Henry VIII's policy of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Laws of Motion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Norman Yoke
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ‘the Norman Yoke'.
45 mins
In Our Time
Yeats and Irish Politics
Melvyn Bragg examines the effect of Irish politics on the work of the poet W.B. Yeats.
45 mins
In Our Time
Materialism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Materialism in Philosophy.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Enclosures of the 18th Century
Melvyn Bragg examines the enclosure movement that fenced in the British countryside.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Brain
The history of cultural, medical, artistic and philosophical ideas about the human brain.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Library at Nineveh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a treasure house of Assyrian ideas.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Black Death
Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the Black Death and its effect on medieval society.
45 mins
In Our Time
Probability
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the strange mathematics of probability.
45 mins
In Our Time
Lysenkoism
Melvyn Bragg examines the destructive career of the Soviet geneticist Trofim Lysenko.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Riddle of the Sands
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prescient thriller about Anglo-German relations.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Music of the Spheres
Melvyn Bragg explores the ancient astrological idea of the music of the spheres.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Arab Conquests
Melvyn Bragg examines the Arab conquests which helped communicate Islam to the world.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Metaphysical Poets
Melvyn Bragg examines the Metaphysical poets, including John Donne and Andrew Marvell.
45 mins
In Our Time
Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome
Melvyn Bragg examines the life and chronicles of the the Roman historian Tacitus.
45 mins
In Our Time
Miracles
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the history of miracles.
45 mins
In Our Time
The Translation Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss classical Greek ideas in the Arabic and the Islamic world.
45 mins
In Our Time
Godel's Incompleteness Theorems
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mathematician Kurt Godel and his work.
45 mins
In Our Time
Vitalism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th and 19th century quest for the spark of life.
45 mins
In Our Time
Dante's Inferno
Melvyn Bragg examines Dante’s ‘Inferno’, a medieval journey through Hell’s nine circles
45 mins
In Our Time
Bolivar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simon Bolivar, the liberator of South America.
45 mins
In Our Time
Aristotle's Politics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle’s ‘Politics’.
45 mins
In Our Time
Neuroscience
Melvyn Bragg examines neuroscience, the relationship between the mind and the brain.
45 mins

Cymraeg
Gaeilge
Gàidhlig

BBC Sounds Help
Contacts, Privacy and Information
Help with Signing In
Newsletter

Explore the BBC

Home
News
Sport
Weather
iPlayer
Sounds
Bitesize
CBeebies
CBBC
Food

Home
News
Sport
Business
Innovation
Culture
Travel
Earth
Video
Live

Terms of Use
About the BBC
Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Cookies
Cookies
Accessibility Help
Parental Guidance
Contact the BBC
Make an editorial complaint
BBC emails for you
Advertise with us

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.